What about an example to highlight how it can improve patient outcomes?

A study that was done [in Journal of Critical Care Medicine] showed that our new early warning system-- the IntelliVue MP5SC vital signs monitors equipped with the IntelliVue Guardian EWS clinical decision support (CDS)tool-- has helped save lives in a significant way. There are cases where early warning signs can prevent significant problems from happening. We have an eICU system — basically a telehealth system — where you're able to have specialists look at patients located remotely and get alerted when something happens. That requires IT and software and the data to be shared in an interoperable way.


What are some of the challenges and concerns you're hearing from hospitals about health IT and interoperability?

An observation that a lot of us have is the adoption of standards and requirements. When they [facilities] evaluate what systems to purchase there needs to be more of a requirement for having standards-based operability. So I think the issue here is education (for) requesters of systems when they purchase systems. And meaningful use is really helping with that and making it really clear about how important standards are.

Besides what's already been said, what are some of the other things you spoke about on the AdvaMed conference panel?

We talked a little about the global nature of health care and the regulatory requirements in the U.S. I think there's a lot of opportunity to get patients more involved with their health care -- to connect the data with the personal health record and there's an opportunity for vendors too, to develop systems that are meant for patients views and to continue developing systems for clinicians views. My caution is when you mix it up you want your language high enough for a clinician to find it useful, but also understandable and digestible by a patient.

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